Who Tells Your Story
by TheHazardsOfLove13
Summary: The untold story of Maria Reynolds. Centered mainly around her younger years, and her relationship with James Reynolds.
1. Opening Credits

**Author's Note: This fic is written for the Caesar's Palace Your Life Soundtrack Challenge. The song that this chapter is based on is Life's for the Living by Passenger. Enjoy!**

Maria walked through the town, one where no one knew her name. She liked that better anyway, those who knew her tended to condemn her for what she had done to survive. The grey clouds of a sudden rainstorm were wrapped around the town like elastic, a madman danced around in the rain, ignored by most, but laughed at by a boy. Just daily life, she supposed, looking around her. All of this was just daily life. Strands of laundry hung from across the roofs like spiderwebs, the families hurrying to take their clothes down before the rainstorm made them more wet than they were already. The sound of shoes clicked on the pavement, and groups of men were huddled around under umbrellas, soaked to the skin with their suits and their boots. Funny, thought Maria, somehow, they all look the same.

Her hair and clothes were starting to become soaked, so she headed into a small coffee tables were full of boys lost in books, most likely studying for college. Words that had been carved into the wall caught her eye. It was just a simple poem, outlined against the wood, but it made tears come to her eyes.

Don't you cry for the lost

Smile for the living

Get what you need and give what you're given

Life's for the living, so live it

Or you're better off dead.

She sat down at a table and stared at the wall until evening fell, a cup of tea growing cold next to her. The moon came up, and stars shone like new buttons sewn onto the old, worn fabric of the night. I'm all alone now, Maria thought. Could I have done something? Was there some way she could have fixed things instead of just trying to survive, and to protect Susan? There must have been something that I wasn't smart enough to see.

Maria was surprised when someone sat down at the table next to her. "Are you okay?" he asked. "Only, you've been here a long time, and you look sad."

"No. I'm not," she admitted, the words just spilling out. "I've lost too much. This world, it took my dreams and hid them. And I kept thinking, if I could do one more thing right, then maybe I could get out, make a new life for me and my daughter. Well, that didn't happen."

She saw the young man looking at her, concerned. "I'm sorry," she said. "I just needed to talk to someone. Don't worry about me, I'll go my own way. Somewhere, somebody, will show me a way home. Until then, well, I'll just keep living. I'm good at that."

"You can stay with me," he offered. "I'm Adrian, by the way."

"Maria," she offered guardedly.

"Maria," said Adrian. "Sounds like you have a story to tell. May I hear it? If you want to share, that is. If you don't, that's fine too."

"Why not?" Maria said. "You've probably already heard it, besides, it would be nice to have someone know my side of things." And so she did. This is her story.

 **Reviews are always appreciated.**


	2. Waking Up

**Thanks to all of you who have read, followed, and reviewed. You guys are amazing :) A brief warning: Due to the nature of this challenge, I may timeskip quite a bit. But anyway, here's this slightly strange chapter based on Lake Song by the Decemberists.**

Looking back on her life with James, she supposed it had started with a dream. Maria didn't believe in superstitions, or at least she hadn't, but she couldn't deny that the first time she had met her future husband had been a dream the night before their meeting in reality.

She stood on the shores of a lake, the cool water lapping at her feet and her toes beginning to be buried in the sand. The sun burned low on the horizon and a fiery volcano of colors lit up the sky. Maria was not alone. Next to her was a boy her own age, mysterious and enigmatic and strangely compelling.

"Say that you will," he told her. "Say you will or won't you?"

"What do you mean, James?" she asked, for in the dream, Maria knew his name was James, in that strange way you just know things in dreams. "What do you want me to do?" she asked.

"But you won't, will you?" he asked again. "Because you never do."

"What do you mean?" she repeated. "What do you want of me?" With each question, her voice rose in volume. She knew she had to do something, but whatever she tried to do was never enough to satisfy him.

The sun suddenly blazed through the clouds, and she felt the sweet sunlight kiss her skin, lightening her mood, though James beside her squinted and turned his face away from the bright light. Maria felt strange,changed by the light, like one about to die, suspended between both worlds, not part of either. There was a strange kind of freedom, she thought, from being seventeen and terminally fey. And then she knew what she had to do for him.

"My life for you," she promised James. "I will give you all that I am, and all that I will become. You will be my past, my present and my future." As she spoke, he took her hand and squeezed it tightly, their two hands sharing warmth.

The beams of sunlight began to move independently, soaring and swooping around the couple. The sunlight separated into circles, that formed into chains, tethering Maria to James, and James to Maria, forcing them closer and closer together until they were locked in each other's embrace. Still she kept up her stream of promises, her eyes set alight by the chains of sunset.

"I will do anything for you," she promised. "I will wait until the oceans fall away and all the sunken cities will reveal themselves to you. Take me and I will never give a thought to what I've paid."

A moment that seemed an eternity passed. The lake reflected the glory of the sky, and the two stood on the beach, waves engulfing their feet before beating a hasty retreat back to the lake. Their eyes were locked together, and filled with sunsets, and something that was not quite love, and not quite desire, but something stranger and rarer than both.

"My life for you," Maria whispered into his ear. "Will that satisfy you?"

He placed a hand on her cheek and turned her head back to face his. "No," James said, and the sunlight fell away.

Maria woke up, still seeing the afterimages of the sunset burned on her eyelids, and wondered what the dream could mean. She didn't even know anyone named James.

 **Thanks for reading! Reviews are always appreciated.**


	3. First Day At School

Time for school, she thought, both excited and a little nervous. Maria knew that she was lucky to be given the chance to have an education. Most girls and especially ones in families like hers didn't have that same opportunity. So, yes, it would be wonderful to be given the chance to learn new things, even if it would probably be mostly how to be a good wife. That was the excitement.

The nervousness came from the fact that she had no idea what to expect. The people streaming around her, each with their books, weren't familiar to her. What would they be like? Would she find any friends? Or, something more than friends?

Maria knew that she had not been sent to school merely for the purposes of education, she could be taught most of the skills at home. Her family wasn't rich, or large, so there wasn't really room for her to stay at home after she grew older. Looking around the crowd, she wondered which of the boys were from wealthy families.

A whisper of conversation snuck into her ears. "Well, she's pretty," said a boy said to his friend. "Perhaps..." The rest was lost to the roar of the crowd.

Maria turned to realize that the boy speaking seemed to be looking at her, somewhat calculatingly as if measuring up all she was worth, and what she could be used for. A blush rose to her cheeks as she processed what he had said, and worse, that they had just made eye contact. Now he was moving towards her, closer, closer, like a shark closing in on its prey.

"Hello," he said, taking her arm and escorting her to his group of friends, "James Reynolds, at your service."

James, Maria thought, remembering her dream the night before, and allowed him to lead her, usually an impropriety, as they had just met. She looked around, half expecting to see the sunlight twisting around them again, before realizing that she hadn't introduced herself. "Maria," she said quickly, another blush rising quick on the heels of the first one.

"Maria," he repeated, tasting every syllable. "Well, it would be my honor to request you join my little group." The others seemed mostly silent, waiting on his lead. Realizing that he still held her arm, tighter than before, she pulled away quickly, not wanting her reputation to be tarnished. There was a brief flicker of annoyance in James' eyes before he continued.

"Have you ever heard of Bohemia?" he asked. "Days of inspiration, making something out of nothing, going against the grain, going insane."

The next person in the group picked up the flow of words, almost on cue, as if this had been rehearsed and performed many times. "To loving tension, to more than one dimension,"

And to the next and the next the words passed along in the same sing-songy rhythm.

"To starving for attention, hating convention, hating pretension"

The words swirled around Maria in a tornado of noise, as the group passed along the words before looking at James, waiting for him to say the last words and complete the ritual.

"To anything taboo," he finished and took her arm again, waiting in anticipation for what she might say next. Maria was unsure of what to say. James didn't seem trustworthy, but what was her other options? He had marked her as his own before they had even met, and a group would help her survive, especially one where it seemed that she was the guest of honor. For Maria secretly craved the spotlight, and the words of the group, the kind of reckless lifestyle they described, attracted her like a moth to the flame.

Just make a choice, she told herself, tell him yes, and who knows what would happen next? Or walk away now, keep your head down and never know what might have been. But whatever you do, make your decision quickly.

Maria looked at James, and said three simple words, "La Vie Boheme." Long live Bohemia.


End file.
